FSIReview: Issue 13

It is clear to business leaders everywhere that the financial services industry has never been in such a state of rapid evolution, being disrupted by continuous innovation while being subjected to external pressures such as increased regulation and new competitors that put profits at risk.

From our experience in serving financial institutions, FinTech disruption doesn’t have to spell doom for traditional firms. Indeed, the influence of FinTechs can be a net positive for the incumbents, particularly those who are able to make the right strategic choices with passion and urgency. Incumbents can indeed thrive in a disrupted world. They can learn from history and be proactive in managing the change instead of being passive participants. But first they need to understand how FinTech effects them before taking advantage of all the potential benefits FinTech offers.

In this issue of FSIReview, we explore strategies to help financial institutions define the future success of their businesses in the face of digital disruption.

We begin with the Singapore Highlights of the Connecting Global FinTech: Hub Review 2016 report, published by Deloitte in collaboration with All Street Research. The research findings reveal that Singapore, as a leading international financial centre, is a serious contender for the number one spot in FinTech. Indeed, in the overall Index Performance Score, both Singapore and London scored 10 – the best score among all the Hubs surveyed – ahead of many other well-established Hubs such as New York, Silicon Valley, and Hong Kong.

We also hear from Mr Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief FinTech Officer of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, in an exclusive interview where he shares his views on FinTech and how Singapore is working towards becoming a world leader in the FinTech industry.

Next, we take a closer look at our collaboration with the World Economic Forum in the Future of Financial Services project exploring disruptive innovation in the industry. We examine blockchain as an enabler of disruption based on more than 12 months of research and engagement with over 200 industry leaders and subject matter specialists through interviews and multi-stakeholder workshops.

We then take a peek into the future of general insurance, in a report that builds off of our work with the World Economic Forum report and looks at disruptive innovations in the insurance sector forcing transformation such as the emergence of blockchain in insurance and the expansion of digital intermediaries.

A trend that has also been generating a significant amount of attention from the industry has been the shift towards an open application programming interfaces (APIs)-oriented approach. In our final article, we explore how open API allows organisations to leverage their existing IT assets and technology architecture to generate new business value via mobile apps, connected devices and the cloud.

We hope that you will find this edition of the FSI an interesting and insightful read.

To receive a copy of the report, please drop us an email at sgindustries@deloitte.com.